White House flubs Bible, like everyone else
The White House proved itself scripturally challenged recently when
Press Secretary Jay Carney said: "I believe the phrase from the Bible
is, 'The Lord helps those who help themselves.'"
Actually, no.
The
phrase, often attributed to the Bible, most likely comes from Benjamin
Franklin and possibly from the ancient Greeks. The White House felt
obligated to add a note to the transcript of Carney's briefing: "This
common phrase does not appear in the Bible."
Embarrassing perhaps,
but not uncommon. It may make Carney feel better to learn that he's got
company—a lot of it—with other Americans. Numerous polls have shown
that most Americans believe the phrase is straight from the Bible.
Christian
pollster George Barna has asked Americans repeatedly about the saying
and consistently found that a majority attributes it to the Bible. In
2000, 75 percent of Americans surveyed by Barna attributed the phrase to
the Bible.
Comedian Jay Leno once challenged passersby to name one of the Ten Commandments for the Tonight Show. The most popular answer? "God helps those who help themselves."
(Another
wrong guess given to Leno was, "Let whoever is without sin cast the
first stone." That one's actually in the Bible—John 8:7—but even that
episode with the memorable Jesus quote is bracketed in the NRSV Bible as
absent from most ancient texts of John.)
The White House flub
occurred November 2 when Carney was trying to back up his boss, who had
chided Congress for passing a resolution to reaffirm "In God We Trust"
as the nation's motto rather than passing his jobs bill. "I trust in
God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to
work," President Obama said.
The press secretary "certainly
deserves a bit of ribbing, because people attribute to the Bible all
kinds of stuff," said Dale Martin, professor of religious studies at
Yale University. "They should be more careful." But even Bible teachers
can slip up—"everybody does it," Martin added.
So where does the idea that "the Lord helps those who help themselves" really come from?
The earliest records of a similar phrase seem to go back to the ancient Greeks. Aeschylus wrote in his play The Persians: "Whenever a man makes haste, God too hastens with him."
Over
time, other traditions have enshrined the idea. In Islam, for example,
the prophet Mohammad is believed to have said: "Trust in God but tie
your camel."
The most common attribution comes from Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac in 1757. —RNS
